Hello Reader,

What do you do when you need to solve a simple (but mentally taxing) mathematical equation? Let’s say 1538 X 976 (no calculators allowed!).

Odds are: you write it down.

It is too hard to hold information into our memory while trying to do complex processing of that information at the same time.

And that’s why we take notes. We offload our minds into the page so we can have more brain power to think.

But in the long-term notes get messy. As you learn new things, research new questions, and come in contact with all sorts of information (some useful and some interesting only), notes that were created to help you think may feel like a dumpster of ideas. A dumpster you need to dive-in every time you want to find an idea you worked on in the past.

So to help us get free of idea dumpster diving, we move from note-taking into personal knowledge management.

But what is management?

Management is the optimised coordination and administration of our processes towards a goal.

When it comes to Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) for research we are optimising towards:

• Creating original ideas
• Creating strong arguments
• Backing up our claims with research
• Finding our ideas and our sources fast
• Making sense of big and complex amounts of information
• Writing a comprehensive report about our research vision, problem, process and findings.

All that into ONE system.

But PKM is not just a system. Instead, it is a practice. A practice that involves your mindset (M), your methods (M), and the tools (T) you use.

So when it comes to the practice of PKM for Research, I break these MMTs into 6 different skills that build from each other.

• Active Note-Taking. This is the ability for you to express your own knowledge rather than just passively copy or highlight your sources. The skill of Active Note-Taking supports you in expressing yourself, remembering ideas you come across, and creating notes that will help your writing later.
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• Active Reading. This is the ability to engage with a source from multiple perspectives. If you want to deeply understand your sources and create original ideas from sources that everyone else is reading, then you need to know how to look at your sources differently. Active reading is not about summarisation (you have GPT for that), it is about interpretation. So those who actively read MUST take notes, otherwise their thoughts are gone after just a few days.
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• Idea Management. This is the ability to organise your ideas. Yes, I didn’t say “organise your notes” but “organise your ideas”. It is the process of identifying what are your objects of attention and organising your notes around them. The process of object identification opens the way for knowledge creation, while organising your notes and sources around them makes the retrieval of these notes (and sources!) super fast.
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• Networked Reading. This is the ability to analyse and synthesise knowledge from multiple sources. It requires active reading but amplifies it by merging it with your objects of attention. Knowledge is not IN your sources. Knowledge is in YOUR INTERPRETATION of your sources. Idea notes in your PKM system will become the point of synthesis to what you read. They will also help you create a coherent storyline from all you read.
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• Argumentation. This is the ability of creating claims, lines of argument, and supporting your argument with research. This ability indicates what should go into your notes (examples, data, observations) and when you should be writing “claim notes” rather than descriptive notes only.
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• Knowledge Creation. This is the ability to create new knowledge from knowledge you already have. You don’t need to read 10 more papers to get a new idea, instead you can develop tons of ideas with knowledge you already have. In fact, each object of attention is a chance to create original knowledge, you just need to know how to manipulate them.

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When you put all these skills together, you are not only DOING research, but also building a PKM practice optimised for that. A practice where each skill supports you in building what I call a Knowledge Portfolio.

A Knowledge Portfolio is a collection of works that demonstrate to an audience that you have the knowledge you claim you have.

This means: your papers, presentations, workshops, blog posts, dissertation, books, etc. It contains anything that you create to communicate your knowledge to others.

This is a portfolio that you can create FROM your notes.

I can spend (and want to spend) the rest of my life talking about PKM and improving our thinking, but as I am trying (again) to keep my emails to a reasonable size I will stop here. 😅

In the upcoming Playbook Issues we will dive into each of these skills. I will explain a bit more of what is involved in each one and how they look like in practice (in your PKM system).

Meanwhile, if you have any questions, feel free to ask by replying to this email.

Until then, take care.

Bianca

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